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At the moment when the hopes of the Syracusans had raised their spirits high because of their victory over the enemy both by land and by sea, Eurymedon and Demosthenes arrived, having sailed there from Athens with a great force and gathered on the way allied troops from the Thurians and Messapians. [2] They brought more than eighty triremes and five thousand soldiers, excluding the crews; and they also conveyed on merchant vessels arms and money as well as siege machines and every other kind of equipment. As a result the hopes of the Syracusans were dashed again, since they believed that they could not now readily find the means to bring themselves up to equality with the enemy. [3]

Demosthenes persuaded his fellow commanders to assault Epipolae, for it was impossible by any other means to wall off the city, and taking ten thousand hoplites and as many more light-armed troops, he attacked the Syracusans by night. Since the assault had not been expected, they overpowered some forts, and breaking into the fortifications of Epipole threw down a part of the wall. [4] But when the Syracusans ran together to the scene from every quarter and Hermocrates also came to the aid with the picked troops, the Athenians were forced out and, it being night, because of their unfamiliarity with the region were scattered some to one place and others to another. [5] The Syracusans and their allies, pursuing after them, slew two thousand five hundred of the enemy, wounded not a few, and captured much armour. [6] And after the battle the Syracusans dispatched Sicanus, one of their generals, with twelve1 triremes to the other cities, both to announce the victory to the allies and to ask them for aid.

1 Thuc. 7.46 says fifteen.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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